ATTORNEY General Robert T. Torres has requested the Legislature to reject the proposed amendment to the Rules of Admission made by the Supreme Court requiring attorney-applicants to take additional testing before they are allowed to practice in the CNMI.
Attorney-applicants are lawyers who are licensed to practice law in U.S. jurisdictions and have been in active service for out least five years out of the 12 years.
The applicants may apply to take the attorneys bar examination, which the CNMI Supreme Court deems sufficient to demonstrate the ability of the attorney to practice in the commonwealth.
In a May 30 letter, Torres requested Senate President Paul A. Manglona, R-Rota, and House Speaker Heinz S. Hofschneider, R-Saipan, to disapprove the proposed amendments.
Torres said under Article 4, section 8 of the CNMI Constitution, the amendment would become effective 60 days from its submission to the Legislature, unless disapproved by a majority of either house of the Legislature.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Miguel S. Demapan submitted the proposed amendment to the Legislature last April 8. If the Legislature won’t act on it, the amendment will become affective on June 7.
Torres said the current Rules of Admission “are sufficient, reasonable and sound.”
He said that as a “manager of government attorneys” it is his interest that “experienced attorneys demonstrate their competence in local laws, local procedures and local customs.” Requiring experienced and competent attorneys to take additional testing covering general principles of law, according to Torres, “serves no logical purpose and adversely affects my ability to recruit experienced counsel to mentor our younger attorneys while handling more complex legal issues.”
In the amendment sent by Demapan to the Legislature, attorney-applicants beginning with the July bar examination, would be required to take the following additional examinations: multi-state essay examination, multi-state performance test, commonwealth local essays and multi-state professional responsibility examination.
